balancing foodie desires with a healthy lifestyle

Hereford Road is a superb, little restaurant tucked away perfectly between Notting Hill Gate, Westbourne Grove and Bayswater. It is simple, understated and elegant -- just like the food that is served there. Did we feel guilty about indulging in a full 3 course extravaganza? Nope. Not one little bit.

These soups will take you from "Blah" to "Hurrah" in no time at all!! So yummy and best of all they are both sugar free, suitable for vegans, lactose free and gluten free. They’re also perfect for people on a 5:2 type eating lifestyle too as the calorie count is kept very sensible. Check them out!!!

These Organic Fruit Purees are by one of our favourite brands, Clearspring, and are a perfect timesaver for us busy types. Made from ripe, organic fruits and prepared using minimal heat, these purees ensure that...Read more

If you’re sort of lazy in the kitchen and prefer no-hassle cooking, then this recipe is for you. It’s fast, delicious, easy on the waist-line. This is a dish of succulent scallops, cooked with diced chorizo and served on a bed of cauliflower puree/mash -- a great low carb/low cal alternative to mashed potatoes -- it has comfort factor but can be eaten without a guilty conscience.

Available in white and green varieties, asparagus is delicate, dainty and delicious. It is also packed with health benefits which have been recognised since ancient times and many believe that asparagus contains aphrodisiac properties too... so either way it’s a win/win situation! This is low carb, low sugar, low calorie and low fat but still filling, super tasty and nutritious!

How often have you eaten a “healthy” biscuit/brownie/cake/chocolate only to shut your eyes and clearly imagine that you are chewing on a piece of wet, brown cardboard box?! Well, rest assured, these bad boys are really, really, reeaaalllly tasty and will keep your choccie/sugar cravings under control! Hurrah!

Alicia is the keenest baker in our family and she has provided two different biscuit dough recipes here -- “Dough One,” with regular wheat-flour and sugar and “Dough Two”, with spelt flour and honey. We promise you that, although the write up might look complicated, these are actually easy to make and will make you very popular with friends & family!

Snacking is a sneaky, silent, slayer which will un-do all your healthy eating efforts if you let it. This snack is super healthy and beautifying (probably!) -- for the vain amongst you, this snack will get your skin glowing, your hair luxuriant and will restore your levels of Va-Va-Voom in no time!

Here is a recipe for a delicious and speedy curry which is actually pretty healthy but impressive enough to serve to your friends and family and get a major amount of praise lavished on you - yay!! It’s also something that can be thrown together relatively easily so, for anyone who finds the notion of cooking a curry too daunting, this is the recipe for you! We've provided a vegan option as well -- so that this recipe is something for everyone!

If you end up making this for your Valentine... did you know that Tomatoes used to be called “Love Apples” because of their sizzling hot, seductive, scarlet colour and because, in times gone by, they were considered to have aphrodisiac properties (you can thank us later!)

We cannot actually emphasise enough just how in love we are with Nakd Bars and Nakd Oatie Bars! These snack bars are a perfect way to satisfy sweet cravings without taking in any refined sugars, processed ingredients or nasty additives. They're the size of a regular chocolate bar -- so very easy to stash in a bag so that you can have a healthy snack on hand for energy emergencies...

Breathe the Watermelon... Feel the Watermelon... Be the Watermelon. A fast and easy salad (there’s a smutty joke to be made somewhere here) which can be used as a canapé, starter, accompaniment, part of a mezze or as a light lunch or dinner. It’s refreshing, hydrating, nutritious and it's pink and pretty!! What's not to like?

This summer, Alicia went to the beautiful, capital city of Austria... Vienna. A city rich in so many things (music lovers - think Schubert, Strauss, Mozart, Vivaldi and...for those of you who keep saying what...Read more

Very carefully thought out to make sure every, single ingredient is making a valid contribution to your overall health, well-being and general mojo (whatever that might be!) Drink one of these a day and your skin will glow, your energy levels will rocket and people will be drawn to you because of the undeniable waves of vitality that you will emit from every pore!

This dip is guaranteed to wow, dazzle and impress anyone you serve it to... it is a version of a Middle Eastern dish commonly known as “Baba Ghanouj/Ghanoush.” This is full to the brim with well rounded, earthy flavours and has a beautiful, smoked taste to it because of how the aubergine is prepared. If you combine your mind with your mouth, then every bite will be full of sunshine. Trust us. It’s true.

This tastes insanely delicious, looks absolutely glorious and impresses anyone you serve it to... if that wasn’t enough, it is healthy and fits in with many dietary preferences as it is vegan, vegetarian, wheat-free, dairy free, alkalising, low in sugars (so could be good for diabetics) and without the carbs should even be paleo/primal friendly. If you have a food processor, this takes just minutes to prepare. If you don’t, well then it will take you longer because of the chopping involved... but food made with culinary TLC (time, love and care) does often taste more delicious...

This is one of Priya's favourite quick salads to make as it tastes incredibly fresh and clean. It is so refreshing that it tastes like biting into a clean, zingy snowball, whilst standing on the peak of a snow-capped mountain wearing your best bikini/swim wear and then gargling cold, minty mouthwash... kind of. You know what we mean. It's good. It is also raw, alkaline, vegan, vegetarian, paleo, primal and low GI... whoop whoop!

Matcha is basically just very finely milled green tea and is busting at the seams (something we don't want to do!) with nutritional goodness. They say it has 137 times the antioxidants of regular green tea -- because unlike just drinking green tea the usual way, with Matcha you are actually ingesting the whole leaf. They also say it has 9 times the amount of beta-carotene than spinach. (We're not sure who "they" actually are by the way!)

A treat meal comes in many forms and they don’t need to be time intensive just because they’re on the more luxurious side of the food spectrum. A good example of this is “pasta carbonara” which, for both of us, is a delicious comfort food which neither of us can pretend is light on calories. Who cares though? Sometimes you just want to eat what you want to eat and calories are not part of the consideration!

NOPI is a Soho based, London restaurant from the team behind Ottolenghi and it serves food with a strong influence from the Middle East and Asia. Every bite there sort of tastes of sunshine and...Read more

Porridge has the benefit of being highly flexible to suit varying dietary needs and intolerances (as you will see from the ingredients below.) You can have your porridge plain or with various healthy additions and can make it tailored to your needs! It takes just a couple of minutes to microwave or a few minutes longer on the stove. Whether you decorate your bowl with a pretty heart shape of berries (like in Alicia's photo) and just how much time you take to savour it... is entirely up to you!

This almost looks like Autumn in a bowl, bursting with warming spices and plump raisins. This is barely a recipe really -- we're putting it here more for inspiration for you. This is a versatile little sweet treat which can be enjoyed hot or cold and which both of us love. It's good just as you see it here and also as a topping on natural yoghurt, cottage cheese or as a sweetener in a bowlful of porridge.

Welcome!

Thank you so much for dropping in on our blog — we’re hoping you’re not here totally accidentally… but even if you are… you might be either a foodie or healthy-eater looking for some recipe inspiration! If you don’t fall into either of those categories — well, you do still need to eat — so have a browse while you’re here and see if something catches your culinary eye! If you like what you read, please click the Follow Button which you should find somewhere on this screen – your interest and support would mean a great deal to us!

You can read more about how our blog came to be, and the principles behind it, in the “About Us” tab and, once you have become used to our page layout and the tag cloud, you should be able to find your way round a mix of delicious, nutritious and minxy recipes which take into account many different ways of eating.

You’ll see our newest posts under “Latest Yummies” and our recipes will also be displayed in one of our category tabs above… so, for those of you who only want to look at “Cheats & Treats” (you naughty people!), look into that section for its treasures. For those who are more concerned with Muffin Tops (we feel your pain!) rather than actual Muffins, then the “Skinny Jeans” tab is for you!

The overall ethos of our blog is based on “everything in moderation”… so don’t get too stuck in any one category and explore all the tab options available! We also include a lot of nutritional information regarding many of the ingredients that we use in the “Geek-a-Liscious” section so that you can eat mindfully and learn how clever Mama Nature’s ingredients can be!

We’re not doctors/nutritionists though… so please use your common sense and always be directed by your medical practitioner/nutritionist because they studied super hard and know heaps more about this stuff than we do! We hope that you will enjoy what you read here and that you will stop by again and again — your time on our page really does mean a lot to us!

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